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June 9 , 2003
by Sam H. DeKay, Assistant Vice President, The Bank of New York, Inc.

The document-that-everyone-keeps-updated may, indeed, be going out of style.

Two months ago, I defended my PhD dissertation in the field of business and technical communications at Fordham's Graduate School of Education on the topic "The Historical Evolution of the Employment Resume in the United States, 1950-1999." Sounds dry? Maybe. But my six years of research on this subject has provided me with considerable background on the social purposes, rhetorical characteristics, and other conventions associated with the resume. This genre has recently lost such credibility as a sales tool that many business communications experts are recommending that job seekers abandon the resume format altogether and use a substitute, such as the old fashioned Letter of Application.

The Invention of the Resume as a Sales Brochure
The initial need for a resume really began in the 1970s, when millions of baby boomers entered the American workforce. Time-consuming interviews became an expendable luxury. Hiring officers placed increasing emphasis upon the resume as the primary means of screening job seekers.

And so the resume became a marketing device, and the job-seeker the product. This development spawned wholly new industries. For a price, freelance writers offered to produce resumes with sales appeal and eye-pleasing appearance. (Later, an enterprising organization even devised a means for certifying professional resume writers.) The Business section of bookstores offered several shelves of how-to manuals and guides for do-it-yourself resume writers; many of these guides were published in multiple editions, indicating the enduring need for writing instruction.

Decade After Decade - The Same Advice
And the market for resume advice endures. If you enter the word "resume" into your Internet browser, the search will result in nearly nine million hits! Many of these sites are sponsored by individuals or companies promising to transform your work history into a job-winning resume. And, every two months or so, most newspapers and major Internet sites still offer advice about "Resume Dos and Don'ts."

It's interesting, though, that the how-to manuals, newspaper articles, and professional resume writers haven't really changed their basic theme since the 1970s. And this theme is: "Remember that the resume is a kind of sales brochure intended to attract the reader's attention and get you that all-important interview." To attain this goal, you should do the following:
* Be sure to use high-quality paper; the physical appearance of the resume must be attractive and clean
* Arrange your qualifications to best focus on the requirements of the job you seek
* Present educational credentials so they are relevant for the position
* Downplay your disadvantages. For example, if you didn't graduate from college, list courses taken that relate to the job for which you're applying
* Use full sentences
* Include statements concerning both your career and immediate job objectives
* Present personal details, such as hobbies and military record, only if these contribute to your goal of obtaining an interview
* Keep the resume to one page. However, if you have considerable work experience, the document can exceed this length

Creative Resumes: Falsified Credentials
All this probably sounds familiar, and the advice seems reasonable. However, if you examine the statements closely, you'll notice that the focus is upon "relevance." Your qualifications must be relevant to the position for which you are applying. Education must also relate to the job. Information concerning your personal interests should be included only if relevant. Aspects of your work history or background that are not relevant, or even potentially harmful to your chances of obtaining an interview (your "disadvantages"), should be placed in an inconspicuous location or perhaps omitted altogether.

This emphasis upon "relevance," so essential to the resume as a sales tool, had an unfortunate outcome: Fraud. Many resume writers, in an effort to demonstrate that their educational and employment histories were appropriate for specific positions, simply exaggerated or invented qualifications that were relevant. The problem of fraudulent resumes emerged during the early 1970s, the same time that the resume itself was gaining popularity as an indispensable element of the job search process.

During the subsequent three decades, "creative resumes" did not disappear. In fact, the prevalence of exaggerated or even fraudulent resumes became so rampant that personnel specialists tended to view all resumes with a skeptical eye. From the mid-1970s until today, most manuals in the field of human resources emphasize that a job applicant's employment resume must be interpreted with only slight credibility, since the document is understood to offer a very biased presentation of a job seeker's qualifications.

The Resume Develops a Plot: The Ever-Triumphant Hero/Heroine
Beginning in the early 1970s, authors of business communication textbooks and job application manuals were nearly unanimous in their advice to resume writers:
Don't simply list your titles and duties. The resume is not a dreary "laundry list" of positions held. Instead, describe your work-related accomplishments and achievements in some detail. Present evidence of your ability to solve problems and meet challenges. Explain how you have overcome difficulties and attained your goals. If possible, offer quantifiable proof of your skill and success; for example, tell how much money you saved the corporation with your new system.

Once again, the suggestion seems reasonable. After all, a would-be employer learns far more from the applicant's description of concrete accomplishments than from a mere time-and-attendance list of titles, duties, and dates.

But notice that the description of accomplishments and achievements is structured in a unique manner. Work-related problems are discussed, solutions are discovered, and challenging obstacles are overcome. The applicant is presented as a hero/heroine who, time and time again, has triumphed over adversity. In other words, the applicant's employment history should be narrated as a kind of short story with a plot featuring complications, resolutions, and the successful conclusions.

Unfortunately, this standard plot does not really reflect the career histories of all -or perhaps even most - job seekers. Many persons gain their most valuable experiences, and develop professional expertise, by failing to resolve problems successfully. The very failure serves to provide "lessons learned" that contribute to more skillful performance and judgment in the future. But the resume genre, with its emphasis upon never-ceasing and successful problem solving, does not admit the possibility of failure. Inability to overcome a challenge does not "sell" well.

Also, the “short story” told by the resume does not tolerate embarrassing gaps in an applicant's work record. The ideal resume has no missing dates of employment and it does not easily incorporate "irrelevant" work experience. For example, a housewife seeking to enter corporate employment will have difficulty creating a resume with the expected story line. An individual wanting to change careers may have problems demonstrating the "relevance" of previous experience.
The structure of the employment resume, as it has emerged during the past few decades, is not really sufficiently flexible to accommodate the genuine work histories of many job applicants.

The Resume: Going Out of Style?
And yet, despite these limitations and its lack of credibility among personnel specialists, the resume remains an ever-present fixture in the job search process. Many placement services, for example, still request applicants to "email a copy of the resume." Numerous Internet sites invite job seekers to submit their resumes for worldwide distribution. The document still provides a summary of qualifications that is easy and fast to read. It still facilitates the laborious task of screening potential applicants.

But there are indications that the resume is going out of style. Statistical and anecdotal evidence reveal that job seekers may be well advised to use a substitute for the resume. In the 1970s, for example, only 5% of business communication textbooks and job application guides recommended avoidance of the resume in favor of a replacement; by the 1990s, 50% of published textbooks and guides made this recommendation.

And anecdotal evidence seems to confirm this trend. Recently, the personnel director of a Fortune 500 company claimed: "Instead of a resume, I'd rather receive a very brief description of an applicant's qualifications." I've heard the same sentiment voiced by headhunters in New York City. And one of the articles posted on the Technology Managers Forum FORUMonline Newsletter, Steve Hall's "IT Managers Only! Ten Top Things to Prepare When Searching for a New Position," also echoes this thinking.

So How Do You Replace the Resume?
Three kinds of resume substitutes are mentioned most frequently. These are:

* Letter of Application
* Brief Statement of Qualifications
* Broadsheet

The Letter of Application
You're probably already familiar with the Letter of Application, because it's also called a "cover letter" and usually accompanies the employment resume. It is usually sent directly to a would-be employer in response to an advertisement for a job. This letter offers an opportunity to announce your application for a position and also to summarize your work-related experience in a few sentences.

The application letter has several advantages over a traditional resume. First, it avoids the confining structure of listing numerous educational and vocational qualifications, together with associated dates. Second, the letter does not require you to mention certain details (such as educational background) at all. Finally, the Letter of Application is not encumbered with the resume "plot line" that requires evidence of steady career growth, with no embarrassing gaps, and a history of successfully meeting ever-challenging expectations.

Instead, the letter provides a more flexible format that allows you to discuss qualifications pertinent only to the position for which you are applying. A Letter of Application is a narrative, no more than two pages in length, that focuses entirely upon your experiences as they relate to the particular job you seek. The objective is to demonstrate to a hiring officer that you are familiar with the working environment, the problems associated with the prospective position, and the range of possible solutions to these problems. In short, your background is presented as an asset to the hiring firm, at least for the particular job you seek.

The Letter of Application also allows you to reveal something of the flavor of your personality. You can use the word "I." You can discuss your excitement at confronting certain kinds of challenges. You can articulate enthusiasm about your profession. The traditional resume, which was originally intended to follow the format of an application form, discourages the show of personality.

The Brief Statement of Qualifications
A Brief Statement of Qualifications is similar to the Letter of Application, except it includes only the summary description of employment experience as it relates to the specific position for which you are applying. Because this statement is usually provided to placement firms, it isn't necessary to announce application for a position or to include contact information. The statement should probably not exceed one page (250 words), although a paragraph of no more than six lines is the preferred length. Its focus is upon your background as it relates to a specific position.

This last detail may present a problem if you don't have sufficient information about the job. So you'll have to ask the placement specialist to read the complete job description carefully. Even better, request a fax or email of the description. The more details you can obtain, the more you'll be able to focus your statement of qualifications upon the requirements of a particular position.

Like the Letter of Application, the Statement of Qualifications has a flexible format that invites a narrative description of qualifications. This permits you an opportunity to describe past accomplishments, as they relate to the prospective job, and also to demonstrate the personal "flavor," described previously. And, as with the letter, the statement avoids the confining structure of the employment resume.

If your experience is primarily technical, rather than administrative or managerial, your statement should include a listing of the programming languages, operating systems, platforms and other special skills that represent areas of proficiency.

Steve Hall's article in the FORUMonline Newsletter says you should "develop a 30-60 second ‘commercial’ about yourself and put it in writing." This is really the same concept as a Brief Statement of Qualifications.

The Broadsheet
A Broadsheet is a kind of mutant document, combining both the Letter of Application and the resume into one. You can use a Broadsheet if you wish to contact a would-be employer directly, usually in reply to an advertisement. The Broadsheet is not really new at all; it was a preferred means of applying for jobs until the late 1940s. In fact, the resume was a direct descendant of the Broadsheet.

The document begins with an announcement of your desire to apply for a position, then proceeds to summarize your work-related experience as it relates to the job you seek. This summary is similar to, but shorter than, the narrative presentation of your background in the Letter of Application or Statement of Qualifications. Here, once again, you can introduce a personal "flavor" that will communicate your energy and enthusiasm.

After the summary, you provide a resume-like listing of educational, employment, and professional credentials that supplements your narrative description of qualifications. You tabulate the information (as with a typical resume) and ensure that the list is easily readable and attractive.

However, the listing of qualifications should be much more abbreviated than on a normal resume; you need only present information that substantiates and reinforces the claims you've made in your summary description. And be sure to avoid the constraints imposed by a normal resume. For instance, you may eliminate dates of prior employment if they don't contribute to the reinforcement of your summary of qualifications.

The abbreviated resume is included on the same page with the letter, not as a separate attachment. Remember - you are writing a substitute for the resume, not an actual resume. The complete Broadsheet should not be more than two pages in length.

The Broadsheet might be a useful format if some of the traditional elements of a resume (such as educational background and listing of previous positions) strengthen the summary of your qualifications. However, the abbreviated resume must be tightly focused on the summary.

You Do Have Choices
All three of these substitutes are attempting to serve the same function as a resume, but also to eliminate the often verbose, self-serving, and transparent prose of the resume that invites skepticism from a potential employer. The substitute formats attempt to do away with the resume's usual plot line of the-applicant-as-hero/heroine-who-has-triumphed-over-adversity-and-resolved-problems-in-a-quantifiably-verified-manner. Substitutes provide far greater flexibility for applicants whose employment histories do not fit into this plot. In addition, they permit the articulation of a personal "flavor" not usually encouraged in a typical resume.

These substitutes don't necessarily eliminate the possibility of fraud. The summary of qualifications, which is the focus of the Letters of Application, Brief Statements, and Broadsheets, can be a gross exaggeration of truth. However, the substitutes impose far fewer constraints upon the job seeker. Therefore, there is less need to contort your credentials and past experience in order to conform to rules and constraints.

You probably still need to have a traditional resume, and probably need to keep it updated. But you should also be aware that choices are available that may make for more compelling reading. Carefully consider your own qualifications and employment history. Are they more effectively reflected by the traditional resume, or by one of the substitutes? If your resume isn’t getting you the interviews and calls you want, consider trying one of the newer formats. More and more employers are looking for non-traditional communication from applicants. Sending out something other than the traditional resume just may give you the edge over rest of the pack that will get yourself that all-important face-to-face interview. Today, you have a choice. You may just want to use it.

© Sam Dekay, 2003
About the Author: Sam H. DeKay, Assistant Vice President, The Bank of New York, Inc.
At The Bank of New York, Sam DeKay is responsible for assessment of security-related risks, development of policies and standards related to data security, and development and implementation of security awareness programs. Prior to BONY Mr. DeKay worked at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield as manager of information security; prior to this he worked at ABN Bank, also as manager of information security. His areas of expertise include security risk assessment, policy development, and business communications. He is currently studying towards his PhD at Fordham University (expected spring, 2003) and also received a PhD from Columbia University. Mr. Dekay has been a member of Technology Managers Forum since 2002.